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21 January 2013

A Mustang, A Charger, A San Francisco Backdrop. Haaang On...

We love our obscure TV series here in Amazo Tower; even better if they have some kind of gratuitous car content, of course. Case in point: there was a very short-lived (13 episodes) TV series in the US last year called Alcatraz, the premise of which is that both the prisoners and the guards disappeared from Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary in 1963 and have abruptly reappeared in a modern-day American city, where they are being tracked down by a government agency. Interesting, but not much room for petrolhead content, no? Well yeah, as the city in question is Alcatraz's location - San Francisco. And we all know what San Fran is famous for, car chase-wise...

That chase scene has spawned various re-enactments in different forms, although none can really capture the magic of the original.
That said, the makers of the show did their very best effort to replicate the Bullitt chase in the episode. The chase takes place in the series finale; they filmed various scenes of the chase in the exact same streets of San Francisco using a brand new Ford Mustang and Dodge Charger. Apparently, a lot of attention to detail was taken trying to recreate every single shot and add some more using camera techniques that weren't devised in 1966. They didn't even take it slow either; there's a lot of sliding around the corners, a lot of getting close to things, at speeds of apparently up to 70mph. Better watch out where you parked then.
There's even a cameo of a Highland Green 1968 Mustang Fastback, right at the end of the clip...